Police, vigilante foil kidnapping in Abuja

The police and vigilantes foiled a kidnapping at a residential house behind the police station in Abaji in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

A security guard of the house, who preferred anonymity, said the suspected kidnapers invaded the house around 1.am on Sunday.

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According to him, one of the kidnappers shot into the air which attracted the attention of the police and some vigilante members.

“One of them scaled the fence and I grabbed and started struggling with him, then other gang members outside the house started shooting sporadically, but luckily, the police and some vigilante members responded and engaged them in a shootout.

“In fact, some of the kidnappers jumped through the back fence and destroyed the solar light inside the compound,” he said.

Daily Trust learnt that the owner of the house, who is a staff of Abaji General Hospital simply identified as Amos, was not at home during the invasion.

Our reporter who visited the house met the Abaji Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and the Area Commander when they went to the wife of Amos to obtain a statement.

The spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, ASP Maryam Yusuf, was yet to pick calls or reply to an SMS on the incident at the time of this report.

Meanwhile,  Abaji stakeholders, under the auspices of  Ideal Forum, have declared support to the vigilante members to tackle kidnapping and other crimes across the council.

The Secretary of the forum, Alhaji Sidi Ali, who spoke with newsmen, said the need to support the vigilante members became imperative due to the upsurge in kidnapping in the area.

He said the forum had decided to partner with the authorities of the council and the police to give all the necessary support to the vigilante group in order to ensure that lives and property residents were safe guarded.